(First of two parts)

A FEW WEEKS AGO, MY manager asked if I could stay an extra day in Los Angeles to perform on May 1 at an event called ?A Fine Romance,? a benefit for the Motion Picture and Television Fund. The MPTF raises money for members of the entertainment industry who fall upon hard times and need a hand.

It was created over 89 years ago, via a simple coin box where industry workers would drop spare change to help those in need. Its mission has always been ?Take Care of Our Own.?

?A Fine Romance? was celebrating its fifth year. Founding host Catherine Zeta-Jones could not attend the event. She?s busy with her eight-show-a-week gig on Broadway, ?A Little Night Music,? so she left hosting duties in the capable hands (and masculine biceps) of actor Hugh Jackman.

The event, which celebrates the link between stage and film, had to have songs from a Broadway musical and a Hollywood movie of the same name. This evening would include numbers from ?Damn Yankees,? ?Gypsy,? ?Evita,? ?Hairspray,? ?Finian?s Rainbow,? ?South Pacific,? ?Flower Drum Song,? ?Les Misérables,? ?Gigi,? ?My Fair Lady,? ?Catch Me If You Can,? ?Cabaret,? ?Thoroughly Modern Millie,? ?42nd Street,? ?Mame,? plus one song from a musical based on movie-making, ?City of Angels.?

I would be singing ?I Enjoy Being a Girl? from ?Flower Drum Song.? I contacted Gerard to make a kick-ass chart for me. Once he had the orchestra instrumentation, he got down to work. Even if he has a new baby girl at home and a ton of work on his desk, he was still able to churn something out.

It sounded fabulous. Gerard always says that he could?ve done something better with the song (I love his attitude), but ? oh, darn that thing they call ?time constraints.? He e-mailed his arrangement to the music preparation people, all formatted correctly and ready for printing.

Broadway who?s who

Anyway, I looked at the list of performers, and my jaw dropped. It was a small sampling of who?s who on Broadway and Hollywood, including (besides Hugh Jackman) James Marsden (?Hairspray,? ?Enchanted?), Leslie Uggams, Kelli O?Hara (?South Pacific?), Cheyenne Jackson (?Xanadu,? ?30 Rock?), Patti Lupone (?Evita,? ?Gypsy?), Katie Holmes (?Dawson?s Creek?), Hector Elizondo (?The Princess Diaries?), Christine Ebersole (?Grey Gardens?), John Barrowman (?Desperate Housewives?), Brian Stokes Mitchell (?Man of La Mancha,? ?Ragtime?), Aaron Tveit (?Next to Normal?), Tom Cruise and Shirley MacLaine (we don?t need to list Tom and Shirley?s credits, do we?).

John Mauceri would be our musical director. He and I last worked together at the Hollywood Bowl, singing selections from Rodgers and Hammerstein. He was the man holding the baton for the special recording of ?The King and I,? with Julie Andrews and Ben Kingsley.

The day before the benefit, I woke up to a text message from my manager: ?One of the performers has taken ill and the producers just called to ask if you could sing ?On My Own.? Gerard was alerted as well to e-mail the score and parts for this additional number.

Pinch hitter

My first thought was, ?Oh God, yes, of course I?ll do it.? The second was, ?Oh my, I wonder who got sick.? Turned out, it was John Barrowman (my former leading man in the West End production of ?Miss Saigon?), one of the people I was so looking forward to seeing and catching up with. To John, I say, ?Damn you?and thank you,? both with all my affection and love.

My rehearsal on Saturday was set for 2:30 p.m. I was met at the venue by the producers Dan Jinks (?American Beauty,? ?Milk?) and Laurence Mark (?Dreamgirls,? ?Jerry Maguire?), and the director Adam Shankman (?Hairspray?). I headed up to the stage and gave John Mauceri a big hug.

We went through both songs twice, first to check the music, and the second to incorporate all technical elements. Adam gave me free rein to move about the stage and even flirt with Maestro John for the first song, and instructed me to plant myself in one spot for the second.

(Conclusion tomorrow)